The creative process is messy. It has to be. If we wait for the draft to be perfect we will never finish the draft. If we wait until the product is perfect we will never release the product. Even as I write this post, I am trying to make it perfect and I never will. At some point if I want to impact people I will need to hit the publish button.

The question that always comes to my mind is when will I know when something is ready to release. It depends. How is that for an answer? My general rule of thumb is 80% or above. Some projects require 90% or better. It may be different for you. However, I know this, your product will never be perfect. There always will be an error. Guess what? That is okay. Release it to the world. Inspire us with your creation. Stop hiding it.

What have you been working on that you won’t release because it is not perfect?

What is the percentage needed for you?

What is one thing you can release, publish, sing, show the world today?

Have you every uttered the phrase “I am not a creative person”? Or “I am not creative, like ______”? Or “If ____ was here we could have a creative answer to this problem”?

These are all myths.

Everyone is creative, some just need to uncover or rediscover their creativeness.

Have you ever heard the creativity myth that being creative means you have to come up with original ideas? I have. Many times in fact. This scares people away from allowing themselves to be creative. The truth is…

Creativity = Assembly

Creativity is about stealing ideas from many different places and assembling them in a way no one has before. It is that simple.

Ever since I was little kid I enjoyed creating things. As a kid I had a brown paper grocery bag filled with junk; this junk included things such as, empty milk jugs, empty paper towel rolls, a tube for a bike tire and other household trash. With these parts I wanted to create a jet pack. I thought it would be cool if I could create a jet pack and fly to wherever I wanted. Try as I could I never was able to create the jet back. Eventually I threw the bag away. Sometimes I wish I had the bag to try to make the jet pack I always dreamed of.

As I grew up I noticed another thing about myself. I was a leader, when I was in groups I would lead, in sports I would lead, I never thought much of naturally leading a group of people.

Being creative and a leader did not seem to mesh well in life. As I read articles on creativity, rarely do they talk about using creativity in leadership. When I read articles on leadership rarely do they talk about using leadership skills in creative endeavors and rarely talk about needing to be creative as a leader.

Up until recently I have tried to divide these two characteristics I have. I even created a pseudonym for my creative work. I thought I couldn’t associate my creative work with my leadership roles in life.

Now I have this theory. In order to be a leader one must creative. Not pie in the sky creative, rather one who creates things.

A leader is one who creates.

Leaders can create in many different ways. A leader can create vision. A leaders can create a healthy culture. A leader can create trust. A leader can create structures which allow people to succeed.

For me, I lead better when I can create art (film, story, curriculum, and things like this). I love creating vision, structure and things like that as well, but creating art really causes me to be a better leader.

Below is one of my contributions of being creative to the world. I played only a small part in making this film a reality and was surrounded by genius people. It was great being part of multiple teams to create such a powerful piece of art.

What do you think, do leaders need to create? What causes you to be a better leader?